ADVERTISING; A Young Spin On Incontinence, In Spots Skirting Images of Aging

By ANDREW ADAM NEWMAN

Published: March 29, 2012

SINCE its introduction in 1984, advertising for Depend, the adult incontinence brand by Kimberly-Clark, has tended to feature elderly actors golfing, gardening or fawning over grandchildren. The message, naturally, was that the products enabled them to be active without fear of embarrassment.

But a new Depend campaign aimed at baby boomers takes a decidedly different approach, featuring younger celebrities who are not incontinent but agree to model the products as a stunt to benefit charity. The campaign is to introduce brieflike products, Silhouette for Women and Real Fit for Men.

A commercial that will be shown on Monday opens on a football field where a pitchman holding the product approaches the National Football League players DeMarcus Ware, Clay Matthews and Wes Welker.

''Now I know you don't need one,'' he says, ''but will you try one on for charity to prove just how great the fit is?''

After they reluctantly comply, the players run drills as the camera lingers on their form-fitting football pants, the absorbent undergarments undetectable.

Another commercial features the actress Lisa Rinna (''Days of Our Lives'' on NBC), who agrees to model the product under a clingy dress at a red-carpet event.

Both commercials promote a new Web site, The Great American Try On, where consumers can request samples.

In online videos, the celebrities discuss the charities Depend supported on their behalf. In Ms. Rinna's case, $225,000 was given to Dress for Success, which provides professional attire and career advice to women in need. For the football players, $150,000 was donated to the V Foundation, which finances research for cancers, including prostate cancer, which the players point out often leads to bladder dysfunction.

The campaign is by Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide in New York, part of WPP, with the digital agency Organic, based in San Francisco.

Marketed as premium lines, Real Fit and Silhouette will cost about $1.08 each, compared to 72 cents for the standard Depend. In a first for the brand, the product is shown in profile on barelegged models. In the men's commercial, a model wiggles into a pair of snug jeans; in the women's, a model pulls a slinky dress over her head, and the garment cascades over the product.

The demonstrations are split-screen, with the opposing half featuring what is called a bargain product that appears lumpy under clothing.

Mark Cammarota, the marketing director for Depend, said the demonstration videos resonated with consumer research panels, particularly with women.

''When the dress drop comes down, that was really the money shot,'' Mr. Cammarota said. ''That five seconds of video in our testing was a really big drive to purchase.''

Less enthralled were executives at two networks, which the brand declined to name, who raised objections to earlier ads where models turned more toward the camera and were more exposed.

To address that concern, ''there were some tweaks we needed to make,'' said Victoria Azarian, a group creative director at Ogilvy & Mather who oversees the Depend account.

''If you can show a Victoria Secret model in her underwear, why can't you show this?'' Ms. Azarian said. ''It's just like underwear.''

Featuring younger models who are not incontinent may appeal to boomers who are increasingly in need of incontinence products but who are defiant about aging.

''We tried to stay away from typical lifestyle imagery like older people golfing or gardening, because boomers don't buy into that stereotype,'' Ms. Azarian said. ''It's not like once you reach a certain age,'' you are limited to wearing ''a housecoat,'' she said.

While younger celebrities with healthy bladders cannot vouch for how well the products control wetness or odor, they do demonstrate inconspicuousness.

''When we show Lisa Rinna or the football guys, those are the real torture tests,'' Ms. Azarian said. ''If you can play football in these, and if you can't see them even under an incredibly tight dress, then you're showing everyone that this is a step change.''

Depend spent $13.1 million on advertising in 2011, compared with $10.2 million in 2010, according the Kantar Media unit of WPP.

The American market for disposable incontinence garments has grown steadily in recent years. The research firm Euromonitor International estimates annual sales of $1.32 billion in 2011, compared with $557 million in 1997, an increase of 137 percent.

Depend is the dominant brand, with a 30.8 percent share of the market, according to the SymphonyIRI Group.

Ian Bell, global head of tissue and hygiene research at Euromonitor, said incontinence brands were ''trying to normalize the products'' so consumers felt comfortable not only wearing them but also adding them to grocery carts.

He was heartened to see celebrities in the new Depend campaign.

''These celebrities aren't worried that their images will be tarnished by representing these products, and that may give consumers who are most in need of these products the confidence to buy them and to use them,'' said Mr. Bell.

Nancy Muller, executive director of the National Association for Continence, a nonprofit educational and advocacy group, lauded the ingenuity of the new, less bulky Depend line, but not the campaign.

''The ads run the risk of making light of the condition, and they aren't really believable,'' said Ms. Muller, who also objected to the scenes of the product on barelegged models.

''Everyone knows how these products are put on,'' she said. ''Cialis ads don't show a cutaway of a man having an erection after he's had the drug. There's a more credible and more effective way of communicating that message.''

PHOTOS: New commercials for Depend feature the football player Clay Matthews and the actress Lisa Rinna, both modeling the product under form-fitting clothing.